The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1887-03-23
COTTON PLANTING.
CHEAP MONEY THE GREATEST NEED
OF OUR FARMERS.

Rcady Capital Must be Engaged in til,
business to Reach Succcss--Thc Lien Sys
tenn and Expensive Loans Won't Answe,
Views of IL Planter.
The following article on the subject OF
cotton planting, from the pen of q
Wateree planter, appeared in the Colum.
bia Register:
"Whet man is there, if you ask 70,
bread will give you stone; if you ask
for fish, give you serpent?"
When the early Virginia colonists ap.
piled to the authorities at homo for some
consideration in the matter of churches
and schools, suggesting the benefit il
would be to their souls, the reply of the
profane regency that governed the Vir-
ginia planters was; 'Damn your souls,
plant tobacco" Change tobacco for
cotton and you have much the same re-
ply practically given to the poor devil
who is trying to make an honest living
ny cultivating the kindly soil of South
carolina. "hlakc cotton" is the reply
to every application for advances that
are necessary to carry on this business,
as things now stand, by those who con-
troll tho money Of the country. No cot
ton, no advances, diversified agriculture,
grow grasses, raise stock, wheat, barley.
oats and rye. You improvident, thrift,
less devil call yourself farmer, and
plant cotton to buy everything else?
True, and pity 'tis, true; and Why is this
thus? Simply because this power that
rules the country absolutely finds it's
interest IN having cotton planted to the
exclusion, practically, of cvcryclmg
else; and under tho pressure of that law
the farmer has his financial liic worked
out OF him as completely rs ever the
Spaniard did the best blood of Aztec and
Inca in the mines Of Mexico and Peru
The emancipation of the Southern
negro left nothing in the hands of the
planter but his lands, with little or no
market value, at least not enough to
make it a legitimate basis of mercantile
credit. The national banks refused to
lend money on the security of real estate.
their charters forbidding. The banks
found it better for their interest to get
as far from the planters as possible, and
interposed the commission merchant
between them, who acted as strikers for
the bank, while making their own money
out of it. The bank gives accommoda-
tion to the city merchant, the merchant
to such firms In the country towns and
CROSSROADS rs suit their purposes, and at
last the farmer (Dc he of many plows to
the nigger with his OK tul,gs It rs he
can get it, with the condition precedent
of $50 much cotton" The cotton comes,
but under this system the planter is
always left. He drags icngthening
chain. When he started after tic war
we assume, he had something left. How
many Of that class have anything now?
Ii he has, how long will lie keep it? 1t
is but n question OF time and short time.
Who or what is TO blame for this? No
individual certainly. He who prospcrs,
while the planter ut the other end OF the
line goes to the wall, does it in fair and
open market, taking advantage OF the
soundings made to his hands for "the
stars In their courses fight against
Sisera 0ho capitalists holds the
cards that wins, and controls the situa-
ton, as the Jews did Europe III the Mid
die Ages, by having all the money and
all the credit.
The man who gets money at six or
eight per cent. and lends it at fifteen or
twenty or twenty-five (gettng it often,
in the first instance, upon the collateral
pledge Of real estate Of the man he lends
it toy must go up as other goes down.
So, then, as far us we can scc this dis
elimination i'll the price of money to the
planter, is the handicap that weighs him
down. He makes his staple pretty much
to the exclusion OF everything else, with
money, that costs him anything from II
to % per cent. one way or another,
whilst the man who buys it, carries on
business with money that costs i'll New
York or Liverpool and & per cent. less.
Those who handle cotton make money
out of it. Go into the streets OF any Of
the country towns III tho cotton region
in December, and every store is full,
and doing roaring business on and out
OF cotton, while every pound OF it cost
the man who made it more than it sold
for. 1t costs 5000 to pick bale of 800
pounds. This alone pours into the
country cotton marts very large
amount of hard cash i'll the space of two
and half months. Add to this the
seed cotton traffic, and you have some
thing that accounts for the "milk in the
cocoanut." SO much more can be made
by those who have money, by lending il
in advances to the man who makes the
cotton, than by planting, that even
planters themselves, who m&y have it,
let it go that way. The tendency seems
to be the absorption of all the large
estates in the country, by the wealthy
city capitalists. This is as natural as
inevitable, and in many cases the sooner
this is done tho better for all concerned
They know how it is themselves. They
have the means of overcoming the
difficulties of the situation, and may sue
ceed. We wish them well. II is nc
fault of theirs that the old system of the
South should pass away, and the old
estates of the country be carried on by
an "absentee system" like sugar estate
in British Guiana, or n tea farm on the
slopes of the Himalayas. Free labor re
quires laIgo amount of floating capita
to move and control it, 1t was properly
said, in old times, that the planter hac
no business with banks, his labor being
part OF his vested capital, making theil
necessary support as sell. In all Other
business, whore q number OF hands ar,